We have just finished a very successful May Day brigade to Venezuela, organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN). The majority of the 14 participants were from Australia, with two Canadians and one from the US also taking part.
May Day was, of course, a highlight of the 10-day tour: more than 1 million marchers, all in red t-shirts. Brigadistas were greeted with cheers of welcome — we were easily identified by our Australian solidarity activists shirts and banner.
Caracas
Venezuela’s principal trade union federation, the National Union of Workers (Unete), held the second session of its extraordinary congress on April 24, in a push to re-launch the federation.
Hundreds of trade union delegates from around the country gathered in Union House in El Paraiso to discuss and vote on new set of statutes for the federation and a plan to organise nationwide elections scheduled for July.
Officials from the Venezuelan National Land Institute, supported by the National Guard, took over 31 farms across the country on November 23, totalling 19,000 hectares of farmland. The government said the landowners did not have legal titles or were not putting the land to adequate use.
Glued to the television, myself and my partner watched the entire July 5 showdown in the Central American nation Honduras play out from Caracas.
Jim McIlroy &Coral Wynter, Caracas On February 2, the Latin American TV channel Telesur and the Arabic channel Al Jazeera signed an agreement to exchange information and technology, formalising a growing link that was initiated when Telesur began
On August 6, members of the first Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade visited the Barrio 23rd of January. From the time we entered barrio's public housing, located in an old military area that had been taken over by residents, it was clear this was a place of heightened political activity and organisation.
Having spoken for over two hours on the significance of the Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution earlier that day, President Hugo Chavez spoke to special discussion session on August 13 attended by a representative from each of the delegations at the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Caracas on August 8-15.
- Previous page
- Page 7